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• Premier League title race gets Man City's blood pumping - Guardiola

  Pep Guardiola relishes the decisiveness of the Premier League run-in, as Manchester City prepare for another huge game in the title race.

  The Citizens breezed past Luton Town 5-1 at the Etihad Stadium in their last outing in the competition, but were not in Premier League action at the weekend.

  While they booked a place in the FA Cup final with a 1-0 win against Chelsea on Saturday, Arsenal went back to the summit by recording wins over Wolves and the Blues before Liverpool also leapfrogged Guardiola’s team with a 3-1 victory at Fulham on Sunday.

  City, who will be without the injured Erling Haaland, face Brighton on Thursday, in what is one of their two games in hand on the Gunners.

  Asked how he feels going into the final few games of the season with so much on the line, Guardiola said: “Every game is adrenalin. Every game is important. But yes it’s decisive. Every mistake or every step back makes it more difficult. It is what it is.

  “We have been here in the last years fortunately many times so that’s why we know what we are playing for.”

  Guardiola was also questioned about the criticism levelled at match officials after Nottingham Forest’s strongly worded statement following their 2-0 defeat at Everton on Sunday.

  "Absolutely disagree. In every league in the world, this kind of thing will happen more and more, but of course, I never had doubts about that,” said Guardiola.

  "They make a mistake, they feel bad. It's normal. When they do the job, they want to do it well. The game is so difficult, it is fast and quick, decisions have to be made in one instant. It's not easy.”

• Rangnick confirms Bayern Munich contact

  Ralf Rangnick has confirmed Bayern Munich have been in contact over their soon-to-be vacant coaching position.

  Bayern are on the lookout for a new coach, with Thomas Tuchel set to depart at the end of the season.

  The Bundesliga giants wanted to appoint Xabi Alonso, but the 42-year-old snubbed their advances, and those of Liverpool, to stay at Bayer Leverkusen.

  Bayern's search has now seemingly led them to Rangnick, the former Manchester United interim boss who is now coach of Austria's national team.

  Rangnick, though, is paying full attention to Austria's upcoming Euro 2024 campaign.

  "There has been contact from the side of Bayern Munich and I have informed the Austrian Football Association," Rangnick said in an interview with 90 Minuten.

  "We have a very trusting relationship. My focus is on the Austrian national team. We are focusing completely on the European championships.

  "I feel very well here. At the moment there is no reason to intensively deal with this."

  Rangnick has plenty of Bundesliga experience, having previously coached Stuttgart, Schalke, Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig.

  While Bayern's hopes of securing a 12th Bundesliga title have long since been over, they remain in with a shout of salvaging their season, with a Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid on the horizon.

  According to Opta's predictive model, Bayern only have a 37 per cent chance of overcoming Los Blancos, however.

   

  Austria, meanwhile, have been drawn into a Euro 2024 group that also includes Poland, the Netherlands and tournament favourites France.

  Rangnick's team will face Les Bleus on June 17, before taking on Poland four days later, and rounding off their group campaign against the Dutch on June 25. 

• Haaland out of Brighton clash, confirms Man City boss Guardiola

  Manchester City will be without Erling Haaland when they take on Brighton, Pep Guardiola has confirmed.

  Haaland missed Saturday's FA Cup semi-final victory over Chelsea with a muscular injury he sustained against Real Madrid last week.

  And the issue will also see the striker, who has scored 20 Premier League goals this season, miss out against the Seagulls on Thursday.

  "Erling is not ready for tomorrow," said Guardiola, who added that City will be able to call on Phil Foden and John Stones.

  "It's not a big issue but he's not available."

  Haaland has scored, on average, every 109 minutes in the league this season.

  However, the Norwegian has actually underperformed his expected goals (xG) of 23.7.

  He has also chipped in with five assists, giving him an overall goal contributions tally of 25. Haaland has created 28 goalscoring chances for team-mates across the campaign.

  After Arsenal's 5-0 thrashing of Chelsea on Tuesday, reigning Premier League champions Manchester City sit four points off the summit in third place, albeit with two games in hand.

  Second-place Liverpool will aim to move level on points with the Gunners by beating Merseyside rivals Everton on Wednesday.